The growth of carbons on copper from ethanol vapours: a powerful and flexible technique

Nicola LISI, ENEA

 
The CVD growth of graphene on metal foils from precursors other than methane may offer several advantages. Using Ethanol vapour not only makes the process simpler, safer and more efficient but it also allows the growth of other 2D carbonaceous forms which extend the range of graphene properties.

By lowering the growth temperature, an electrically insulating and optically transparent film was obtained, which showed favourable characteristics for use as Hole Transmitting Layer in polymer solar cells. The single to a few layer carbonaceous film resulted to consist of functionalized graphene, or of a graphene based derivative, probably with hydrogen atoms inserted in the lattice at sp3 sites. The film could then be transferred onto target surfaces using the same protocols of graphene.

Since the carbon films form directly on the copper surface at the equilibrium growth conditions rather than by the post-growth non-equilibrium processes reported for graphene (such as plasmas which can induce lattice damage), we believe that our findings can lead to the practical synthesis of several novel and stable graphene based derivatives. In a far vision the derivatives can be made to accommodate selected functional groups at specific lattice sites to confer tailored functional properties to arbitrary surfaces.

 
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